Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
by BiteWorseThanBark
Summary: It was only now, at the very end of the game, that the Player realised that what they were leading was not a man, but a monster. Oneshot. Spoilers for the end of the game.


**A/N: Oh, look. Another oneshot.:,L I am now resigned to the fact that OFF has taken over my life.X,)**

**Everybody knows the drill: I own nothing but this fic.**

* * *

**Wolf in Sheep's Clothing**

This was it. The grand finale.  
In the final room, bleached dead white from Batter's so-called purification, was a switch. Nothing else. For some reason, merely looking at it made the Player want to run away. Something bad would happen if that thing was tampered with. They were certain of it.  
Oblivious, or perhaps ignorant to their fear, Batter jerked his head towards the object. "Come."  
Shaking, the Player took a single step forward.  
"Stop right there, you impostor!"  
Shocked, the purifying duo whirled towards the sound of the intruder's voice.  
Standing in front of the only means of escape was the Judge. The cat glowered at them, particularly in Batter's direction. "I must say that I had placed the blindest of confidences, the solidest of hopes and the most sincere belief in you." He said. A sad little chuckle soon followed. "We can well say that I have erred to the bones."  
Player swallowed thickly, and Batter appeared unfazed by the feline's words. Judge continued his lengthy, guilt-tripping monologue.  
"But the real betrayer is rather the one who lies beyond the eye of the cat. What have you done, Puppeteer?"His sharp gaze flicked towards the Player, whose eyes immediately widened in shock.  
The blame for Batter's string of atrocities was being placed onto them?  
"Is the opaque mist of the sceneristic frame really your excuse for killing wife and child?"  
With a sickening lurch of the stomach, the Player realized that it truly was their fault that these events were transpiring. They were the one in command of the strings, after all. They could have stopped at any time.  
But they had not.  
"You have not purified this place." Continued Pablo, gaze hardening, and tail swishing with aggravation as he confirmed the Player's revelation. "You have destroyed, eradicated it. You have immersed it into a pristine nothingness."  
_'By my own volition.'_ They added mentally, the chill of this fact numbing them.  
"It's better like that." Batter finally spoke up, voice full of iced venom.  
The Judge shook his head slowly, regretfully. "I should not have lent you my hand. I should have detected the black flame that consumed your soul from the beginning." He closed his eyes, toothy maw turned down in a wince.  
The purifying pair remained silent. Batter eyed the feline warily, watching for any hint of a surprise attack. The Puppeteer, however, wrung their hands together anxiously as the full implications and horror of the atrocities they had committed during this long journey sank in fully.  
Instead of making things better, they had steadily destroyed this world. Now the Zones were pale and lifeless shadows of their former state of being, and haunted not by spectres, but by secretaries... And those creatures were infinitely worse than any of those silly little ghosts and ghouls had ever been. Suddenly, Pablo's voice cut through the dead silence of the room. "Puppeteer, join me."  
_'Huh?'_ They thought, wide eyed.  
Batter immediately stiffened.  
"Expiate the sins with me that we are guilty of by preventing this monster from completing his work." Pablo glared pointedly at Batter. Instead of scoffing at the cat, the monotone man shook his head; rather quickly too.  
"Don't do that. I need you in order to purify this world."  
Was that... vulnerability the Player detected in his voice? Fear?  
Pablo's snapping tone once again stole their attention. "The time has now come to render your final and futile judgment."  
Wait... Did this mean they had to choose a side?  
Frantically, the Player glanced back and forth between the eternally grinning cat and the now less than stoic baseball clad purifier. Above both of the character's heads was a giant X that glowed orange. When the Puppeteer's gaze lingered on one, the other blacked itself out. Indecisive, their head continued to ping pong between the two.  
Both characters called out to the Player with claims of who was the more just or trustworthy of the two of them in an attempt to sway them. Their gaze eventually fixed on Batter. The purifier smiled. Unlike his usual cocky smirk during a battle, it was small and relieved. He extended a hand towards them. Silently, the Puppeteer stared at the appendage. His fingers were stained red from the numerous lives he- no, _they_- had extinguished.  
They closed their eyes and clenched their fists. Their jaws ground together as they pondered on their pivotal final decision...  
Days of slogging around the Zones with Batter had slowly been breeding fear of the man into the Player long before their venture into the Room. As more of the secrets of this twisted world had become unraveled, they had found themself questioning this 'holy mission of purification'. The Room had been the last straw. The Player shuddered as images of the broken and bloodied Queen and her son flashed through their mind.  
When they opened their eyes, they were no longer clouded by doubt.  
They knew whose side they would take.  
With a deft flick of their fingers, the invisible strings that tied them to Batter snapped. The effect this had on him was instantaneous.  
He doubled over and dropped like a stone, pained cries tearing out of his throat.  
Player ignored the awful wailings as best they could as they turned their back on their former puppet and rushed towards the Judge.  
The feline's maw was agape; evidently slack with shock at the Player's decision. It quickly settled into his familiar toothy grin as they positioned themself behind him.  
"That choice was, even though pathetically useless, I think, the right one." Purred the cat as the strings that had once bound Batter wrapped around his small feline frame.  
From his position on the ground, Batter glared at the pair through watering and reproachful eyes amidst all his writhing. He looked like he wanted to cuss them both out; to express his utmost displeasure at this situation at them. But he could not, for teeth thick like shards of glass were ripping out of his gums, rendering speech useless.  
Player could only stare in silent, horrified fascination.  
"And now, Batter," said the Judge with smug triumph, "taste our revanchist thirst for justice of no avail."  
Body rippling as violently as a Burning Elsen, Batter peeled back his rapidly thickening and elongating lips into a snarl. His fingers had by now metamorphasized into long spindly talons. He pushed himself into a wobbly standing position with these talons, all the while his body continued to ripple and swell.  
With a final hair raising screech, his transformation was complete.  
The creature before Player and Judge was hideous and terrifying. The upper body was considerably bulkier and the neck elongated like that of a lizard. Extending from this was a long, crocodilian maw filled with hundreds of tiny dagger teeth that gaped open in a frightening smile. Soulless white disks for eyes gazed out at them.  
Player's lip curled at the sight.  
So _this_ was what they had really been leading: a deformed monstrosity masquerading as a human. They were disgusted and ashamed, both at themself and at Batter.  
"It's time to correct my mistake," they stated, tensing the strings attached to Pablo. "Goodbye, Batter."  
The thing that was Bad Batter threw its head back and screeched, practically shaking the very room with its sheer volume, before charging at both the Judge and his former Puppeteer.

* * *

**A/N: Any feedback? Tips of improvment? Credits for Zacharie?**


End file.
